Briarpatch Magazine

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To fix higher education, start small Independent summer schools and micro-colleges as a place-based, student-led alternative to the state of the contemporary university

Between the suppression of pro-Palestinian activism, student debt, and repressive university governance, many have become disillusioned with higher education.

In this article, Augie Faller offers tangible solutions to creating new alternatives.

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Trampling student movements: a growing trend at Canadian universities Suppression of Palestine protests highlights a new and dangerous context for campus activism – Suppression of Palestine protests highlights a new and dangerous context for campus activism

Students have always been at the forefront of social change, pressuring their institutions to evolve.

But, as Robert Lexier writes, the violent suppression and policing of the Palestine protests set a dangerous precedent for student activism. briarpatchmagazine.c...

#Palestine #activism

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The rise, fall, and future of the right to strike: a reading list Understanding Canada’s repression of workers’ rights

Workers’ right to strike is under attack. Governments across the country have infringed on labour rights through coercive means.

Read Adam D. K. King’s reading list to understand the right to strike, and how to resist repression.

Punch Up, my political collective, wrote this article to contribute to movement-wide discussions about sexual assault and other common forms of harm among activists. We make the case for building infrastructure - in group design, organizing practices, and organizational culture - to prevent harm.

This is an article we’ve been working on forever, about how preventing harm through better social movement infrastructure is great.

2025 Writing in the Margins shortlist Announcing Briarpatch Magazine’s 2025 Writing in the Margins shortlist

We are delighted to announce the shortlisted entries in our 15th annual Writing in the Margins contest.

Thank you to everyone who shared their work with us, and congratulations to our shortlisted entrants! Stay tuned for the final winners!

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Planning to be good to each other Preventing harm by building infrastructure

Kicking off our first issue of the year, Punch Up Collective offers us five concrete ways to take a more intentional approach to building up our organizing infrastructure.

Northern Writing Prize We’re accepting pitches for stories about the land, culture, and communities of Canada’s North. The winner will receive $600 and will be published in our Summer 2026 issue.

Our Northern Writing Prize is launching again in collaboration with NJTI to help writers, photographers, and artists tell stories about the North. Submit your pitch for a chance to win $600 and publication in Briarpatch.

More details here: briarpatchmagazine.com/northernwrit...

Winter 2026 Montreal's cop-ification of transit constables ignores social issues. Plus: an offering from Punch Up Collective on how to build up organizing infrastructure to diminish harm, a reading list on the rise, fall, and future of the right to strike, and more. Cover art by Casper Slack.

📢 Our first issue of 2026 is out now!

Featuring: Montreal's cop-ification of transit constables, universities trampling student movements, building movement infrastructure to diminish harm, understanding the right to strike, and more!

🎨: Casper Slack

Winter 2026 Montreal's cop-ification of transit constables ignores social issues. Plus: an offering from Punch Up Collective on how to build up organizing infrastructure to diminish harm, a reading list on the rise, fall, and future of the right to strike, and more. Cover art by Casper Slack.

📢 Our first issue of 2026 is out now!

Featuring: Montreal's cop-ification of transit constables, universities trampling student movements, building movement infrastructure to diminish harm, understanding the right to strike, and more!

🎨: Casper Slack

last week to enter our Writing in the Margins contest and get your submissions seen by our incredible panel of judges!

9 days left to submit to our Writing in the Margins contest!

Grief, solidarity, and the ethics of art An interview with the judges of Briarpatch’s 15th annual Writing in the Margins contest

Meet the judges for our 15th annual WITM contest and get your best poetry, photography, and creative writing in front of them before December 15th!

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Deadline extended – Writing in the Margins: Briarpatch’s 15th annual poetry, creative non-fiction, and photography contest Briarpatch is accepting submissions of original, unpublished poetry, creative non-fiction, and photography. Win prizes totalling $2,000, and be published in Briarpatch Magazine!

Deadline extended to December 15th for our annual Writing in the Margins contest! If you've been thinking about entering, this is your sign to do it! Full details below:

November/December 2025: The labour issue Workplace drug policy is hurting workers and unions can do more. Plus: lessons from a harm reduction union, solidarity with incarcerated workers, sewing solidarity in Winnipeg, rural unionism, and more. Cover art by Amanda Priebe.

📢 Our labour issue is out now and ready to order!

Featuring: pushing against harmful drug policy, rural unionism, garment worker wins, a reading list, and more

Cover art by Amanda Priebe

We are SUPER EXCITED to welcome IndigiNews to the UNRIGGED journalism community joining @independentnl.bsky.social @ricochetmedia.bsky.social @briarpatchmag.bsky.social @pressprogress.ca @pivot.quebec + 27 other independent publishers across the (so-called) country!

Find out more at unrigged.ca💫

Briarpatch’s Annual General Meeting Interested in being on the Briarpatch board of directors, or peeking behind the scenes of our beloved magazine? Come to Briarpatch’s Annual General Meeting!

Our AGM is coming up on Monday October 20!
4:30 p.m. PST/5:30 p.m. CST/MDT and 7:30p.m. EST
Come find out what we've been up to and/or put yourself up for a position on our board! Registration is required to receive the link for the meeting. briarpatchmagazine.com/agm Hope to see you soon!

Writing in the Margins is back! Submit your creative non-fiction, poetry, and photography that on social and environmental justice for a chance to win $500 and publication in Briarpatch.

Contest ends November 28th 2025. Learn more about the contest here: briarpatchmagazine.c...

September/October 2025: “We are not made of steel” Since 1973, Briarpatch has been serving up regular doses of news and analysis from its home in Regina, Saskatchewan. Believing that a truly free press is essential to the creation of a truly democratic society, Briarpatch provides a thoughtful, principled, and irreverent alternative to the false consensus of the corporate media.

📢 Our September/October issue is out!

Featuring: the psychological toll of war reporting in Gaza. Plus: university interference in Nova Scotia, degrowth debate, and more.

🎨 cover illustration by Ibrahim Abusitta

Link below to order your copy!

Lessons from the cultural front No Arms in the Arts organizers look back on over a year of confronting cultural institutions complicit in Palestinian genocide

In our Jul/Aug 2025 cover story, Aliya Pabani and Jody Chan reflect on the lessons they've learned through organizing with No Arms in the Arts for over a year and the importance of continuing to organize within the cultural sector for a free Palestine.

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Food too expensive? It’s time for public grocery stores City-run stores could be an affordable alternative to large, corporate grocery chains

Zohran Mamdani is promising to bring public grocery stores to New York City. To combat the grocery oligopoly in Canada, @nolore.bsky.social contends, we need the same.

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At this stage in Israel's genocide of Palestinians, Anna Lippman questions the need to lend legitimacy to Palestinian resistance on the basis of anti-Zionist Jewish identity.

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I have an article in this issue of Briarpatch arguing for public grocery stores.

I wrote it months ago, back before I had even heard of Zohran Mamdani, but I did try to get an interview with him for the piece!

Fighting for prime farmland in Wilmot Wilmot Township’s farmers are resisting land expropriation and corporate power

Farmers in Wilmot Township are facing land expropriation and no one is willing to tell them why. Ally Krueger-Kischak writes about their fight and the intricacies of rural agricultural expropriation.

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No longer exists, Ein Samiya (2021) Writing in the Margins 2024 poetry honourable mention

Jenan Afaneh's photo essay consolidates the relationship between people, memory, and place, resisting the erasure of Ein Samiya.

This piece was the honourable mention for the photography category (judged by Annie Sakkab) of our 2024 WITM contest.

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To remember is to look around Tamil-Canadian settlerhood and the politics of remembrance – When our grief is framed as proof of the West’s benevolence, we must ask: what does it mean to derive our legitimacy from the very systems that displaced us? 

Ambihai Akilan explores the politics of mourning, the precarity of state legitimization, and the need for settler solidarity with Indigenous communities.

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July/August 2025: Lessons from the cultural front Since 1973, Briarpatch has been serving up regular doses of news and analysis from its home in Regina, Saskatchewan. Believing that a truly free press is essential to the creation of a truly democratic society, Briarpatch provides a thoughtful, principled, and irreverent alternative to the false consensus of the corporate media.

📢 Our July/August issue is out now!

Featuring reflections from No Arms in the Arts campaign, a case for public grocers, rethinking free trade and more.

🎨 cover design by Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson; photos by Yuula Benivolski

Link below to order your copy!

briarpatchmagazine.c...